WHAT IS IT?

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately 1 percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime—more than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year. Although schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency, the disorder often appears earlier in men, usually in the late teens or early twenties, than in women, who are generally affected in the twenties to early thirties. People with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These symptoms may leave them fearful and withdrawn. Their speech and behavior can be so disorganized that they may be incomprehensible or frightening to others. Available treatments can relieve many symptoms, but most people with schizohphrenia continue to suffer some symptoms throughout their lives; it has been estimated that no more than one in five individuals recovers completely.

This is a time of hope for people with schizophrenia and their families. Research is gradually leading to new and safer medications and unraveling the complex causes of the disease. Scientists are using many approaches from the study of molecular genetics to the study of populations to learn about schizophrenia. Methods of imaging the brain’s structure and function hold the promise of new insights into the disorder.

Schizophrenia as an Illness

Schizophrenia is found all over the world. The severity of the symptoms and long-lasting, chronic pattern of schizophrenia often cause a high degree of disability. Medications and other treatments for schizophrenia, when used regularly and as prescribed, can help reduce and control the distressing symptoms of the illness. However, some people are not greatly helped by available treatments or may prematurely discontinue treatment because of unpleasant side effects or other reasons. Even when treatment is effective, persisting consequences of the illness—lost opportunities, stigma, residual symptoms, and medication side effects—may be very troubling.

The first signs of schizophrenia often appear as confusing, or even shocking, changes in behavior. Coping with the symptoms of schizophrenia can be especially difficult for family members who remember how involved or vivacious a person was before they became ill. The sudden onset of severe psychotic symptoms is referred to as an “acute” phase of schizophrenia. “Psychosis,” a common condition in schizophrenia, is a state of mental impairment marked by hallucinations, which are disturbances of sensory perception, and/or delusions, which are false yet strongly held personal beliefs that result from an inability to separate real from unreal experiences. Less obvious symptoms, such as social isolation or withdrawal, or unusual speech, thinking, or behavior, may precede, be seen along with, or follow the psychotic symptoms. Some people have only one such psychotic episode; others have many episodes during a lifetime, but lead relatively normal lives during the interim periods. However, the individual with “chronic” schizophrenia, or a continuous or recurring pattern of illness, often does not fully recover normal functioning and typically requires long-term treatment, generally including medication, to control the symptoms.

Making a Diagnosis

It is important to rule out other illnesses, as sometimes people suffer severe mental symptoms or even psychosis due to undetected underlying medical conditions. For this reason, a medical history should be taken and a physical examination and laboratory tests should be done to rule out other possible causes of the symptoms before concluding that a person has schizophrenia. In addition, since commonly abused drugs may cause symptoms resembling schizophrenia, blood or urine samples from the person can be tested at hospitals or physicians’ offices for the presence of these drugs.

At times, it is difficult to tell one mental disorder from another. For instance, some people with symptoms of schizophrenia exhibit prolonged extremes of elated or depressed mood, and it is important to determine whether such a patient has schizophrenia or actually has a manic-depressive (or bipolar) disorder or major depressive disorder. Persons whose symptoms cannot be clearly categorized are sometimes diagnosed as having a “schizoaffective disorder.”

Can Children Have Schizophrenia?

Children over the age of five can develop schizophrenia, but it is very rare before adolescence. Although some people who later develop schizophrenia may have seemed different from other children at an early age, the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia—hallucinations and delusions—are extremely uncommon before adolescence.

The World of People

With Schizophrenia

Distorted Perceptions of Reality

People with schizophrenia may have perceptions of reality that are strikingly different from the reality seen and shared by others around them. Living in a world distorted by hallucinations and delusions, individuals with schizophrenia may feel frightened, anxious, and confused.

In part because of the unusual realities they experience, people with schizophrenia may behave very differently at various times. Sometimes they may seem distant, detached, or preoccupied and may even sit as rigidly as a stone, not moving for hours or uttering a sound. Other times they may move about constantly—always occupied, appearing wide-awake, vigilant, and alert.

Hallucinations and Illusions

Hallucinations and illusions are disturbances of perception that are common in people suffering from schizophrenia. Hallucinations are perceptions that occur without connection to an appropriate source. Although hallucinations can occur in any sensory form—auditory (sound), visual (sight), tactile (touch), gustatory (taste), and olfactory (smell)—hearing voices that other people do not hear is the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. Voices may describe the patient’s activities, carry on a conversation, warn of impending dangers, or even issue orders to the individual. Illusions, on the other hand, occur when a sensory stimulus is present but is incorrectly interpreted by the individual.

Delusions

Delusions are false personal beliefs that are not subject to reason or contradictory evidence and are not explained by a person’s usual cultural concepts. Delusions may take on different themes. For example, patients suffering from paranoid-type symptoms—roughly one-third of people with schizophrenia—often have delusions of persecution, or false and irrational beliefs that they are being cheated, harassed, poisoned, or conspired against. These patients may believe that they, or a member of the family or someone close to them, are the focus of this persecution. In addition, delusions of grandeur, in which a person may believe he or she is a famous or important figure, may occur in schizophrenia. Sometimes the delusions experienced by people with schizophrenia are quite bizarre; for instance, believing that a neighbor is controlling their behavior with magnetic waves; that people on television are directing special messages to them; or that their thoughts are being broadcast aloud to others.

Disordered Thinking

Schizophrenia often affects a person’s ability to “think straight.” Thoughts may come and go rapidly; the person may not be able to concentrate on one thought for very long and may be easily distracted, unable to focus attention.

People with schizophrenia may not be able to sort out what is relevant and what is not relevant to a situation. The person may be unable to connect thoughts into logical sequences, with thoughts becoming disorganized and fragmented. This lack of logical continuity of thought, termed “thought disorder,” can make conversation very difficult and may contribute to social isolation. If people cannot make sense of what an individual is saying, they are likely to become uncomfortable and tend to leave that person alone.

Emotional Expression

People with schizophrenia often show “blunted” or “flat” affect. This refers to a severe reduction in emotional expressiveness. A person with schizophrenia may not show the signs of normal emotion, perhaps may speak in a monotonous voice, have diminished facial expressions, and appear extremely apathetic. The person may withdraw socially, avoiding contact with others; and when forced to interact, he or she may have nothing to say, reflecting “impoverished thought.” Motivation can be greatly decreased, as can interest in or enjoyment of life. In some severe cases, a person can spend entire days doing nothing at all, even neglecting basic hygiene. These problems with emotional expression and motivation, which may be extremely troubling to family members and friends, are symptoms of schizophrenia—not character flaws or personal weaknesses.

Normal Versus Abnormal

At times, normal individuals may feel, think, or act in ways that resemble schizophrenia. Normal people may sometimes be unable to “think straight.” They may become extremely anxious, for example, when speaking in front of groups and may feel confused, be unable to pull their thoughts together, and forget what they had intended to say. This is not schizophrenia. At the same time, people with schizophrenia do not always act abnormally. Indeed, some people with the illness can appear completely normal and be perfectly responsible, even while they experience hallucinations or delusions. An individual’s behavior may change over time, becoming bizarre if medication is stopped and returning closer to normal when receiving appropriate treatment.

Are People With Schizophrenia Likely To Be Violent?

News and entertainment media tend to link mental illness and criminal violence; however, studies indicate that except for those persons with a record of criminal violence before becoming ill , and those with substance abuse or alcohol problems, people with Schizophrenia are not especially prone to violence.

Most individuals with schizophrenia are not violent; more typically, they are withdrawn and prefer to be left alone. Most violent crimes are not committed by persons with schizophrenia, and most persons with schizophrenia do not commit violent crimes.

Substance abuse significantly raises the rate of violence in people with schizophrenia but also in people who do not have any mental illness. People with paranoid and psychotic symptoms, which can become worse if medications are discontinued, may also be at higher risk for violent behavior. When violence does occur, it is most frequently targeted at family members and friends, and more often takes place at home.

Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is a common concern of the family and friends of people with schizophrenia. Since some people who abuse drugs may show symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia, people with schizophrenia may be mistaken for people “high on drugs.” while most researchers do not believe that substance abuse causes schizophrenia, people who have schizophrenia often abuse alcohol and/or drugs, and may have particularly bad reactions to certain drugs. Substance abuse can reduce the effectiveness of treatment for schizophrenia. Stimulants (such as amphetamines or cocaine) may cause major problems for patients with schizophrenia, as may PCP or marijuana. In fact, some people experience a worsening of their schizophrenic symptoms when they are taking such drugs. Substance abuse also reduces the likelihood that patients will follow the treatment plans recommended by their doctors.

Schizophrenia and Nicotine

The most common form of substance use disorder in people with schizophrenia is nicotine dependence due to smoking. While the prevalence of smoking in the U.S. population is about 25 to 30 percent, the prevalence among people with schizophrenia is approximately three times as high. Research has shown that the relationship between smoking and schizophrenia is complex. Although people with schizophrenia may smoke to self medicate their symptoms, smoking interferes with the response to antipsychotic drugs. Several studies have found that schizophrenia patients who smoke need higher doses of antipsychotic medication. Quitting smoking may be especially difficult for people with schizophrenia, because the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal may cause a temporary worsening of schizophrenia symptoms. However, smoking cessation strategies that include nicotine replacement methods may be effective. Doctors should carefully monitor medication dosage and response when patients with schizophrenia either start or stop smoking.

What About Suicide?

Suicide is a serious danger in people who have schizophrenia. If an individual tries to commit suicide or threatens to do so, professional help should be sought immediately. People with schizophrenia have a higher rate of suicide than the general population. Approximately 10 percent of people with schizophrenia (especially younger adult males) commit suicide. Unfortunately, the prediction of suicide in people with schizophrenia can be especially difficult.

WHAT CAUSES SCHIZOPHRENIA?

There is no known single cause of schizophrenia. Many diseases, such as heart disease, result from

an interplay of genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors; and this may be the case for schizophrenia as well. Scientists do not yet understand all of the factors necessary to produce schizophrenia, but all the tools of modern biomedical research are being used to search for genes, critical moments in brain development, and environmental factors that may lead to the illness.

Is Schizophrenia Inherited?

It has long been known that schizophrenia runs in families. People who have a close relative with schizophrenia are more likely to develop the disorder than are people who have no relatives with the illness. For example, a monozygotic (identical) twin of a person with schizophrenia has the highest risk—40 to 50 percent—of developing the illness. A child whose parent has schizophrenia has about a 10 percent chance. By comparison, the risk of schizophrenia in the general population is about 1 percent.

Scientists are studying genetic factors in schizophrenia. It appears likely that multiple genes are involved in creating a predisposition to develop the disorder. In addition, factors such as prenatal difficulties like intrauterine starvation or viral infections, perinatal complications, and various nonspecific stressors, seem to influence the development of schizophrenia. However, it is not yet understood how the genetic predisposition is transmitted, and it cannot yet be accurately predicted whether a given person will or will not develop the disorder.

Several regions of the human genome are being investigated to identify genes that may confer susceptibility for schizophrenia. The strongest evidence to date leads to chromosomes 13 and 6 but remains unconfirmed. Identification of specific genes involved in the development of schizophrenia will provide important clues into what goes wrong in the brain to produce and sustain the illness and will guide the development of new and better treatments. To learn more about the genetic basis for schizophrenia, the NIMH has established a Schizophrenia Genetics Initiative that is gathering data from a large number of families of people with the illness.

Is Schizophrenia Associated With a Chemical Defect in the Brain?

Basic knowledge about brain chemistry and its link to schizophrenia is expanding rapidly. Neurotransmitters, substances that allow communication between nerve cells, have long been thought to be involved in the development of schizophrenia. It is likely, although not yet certain, that the disorder is associated with some imbalance of the complex, interrelated chemical systems of the brain, perhaps involving the neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate. This area of research is promising.

Is Schizophrenia Caused by a Physical Abnormality in the Brain?

There have been dramatic advances in

neuroimaging technology that permit scientists to study brain structure and function in living individuals. Many studies of people with schizophrenia have found abnormalities in brain structure (for example, enlargement of the fluid-filled cavities, called the ventricles, in the interior of the brain, and decreased size of certain brain regions) or function (for example, decreased metabolic activity in certain brain regions). It should be emphasized that these abnormalities are quite subtle and are not characteristic of all people with schizophrenia, nor do they occur only in individuals with this illness. Microscopic studies of brain tissue after death have also shown small changes in distribution or number of brain cells in people with schizophrenia. It appears that many (but probably not all) of these changes are present before an individual becomes ill, and schizophrenia may be, in part, a disorder in development of the brain.

Developmental neurobiologists funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have found that schizophrenia may be a developmental disorder resulting when neurons form inappropriate connections during fetal development. These errors may lie dormant until puberty, when changes in the brain that occur normally during this critical stage of maturation interact adversely with the faulty connections. This research has spurred efforts to identify prenatal factors that may have some bearing on the apparent developmental abnormality.

In other studies, investigators using brain-imaging techniques have found evidence of early biochemical changes that may precede the onset of disease symptoms, prompting examination of the neural circuits that are most likely to be involved in producing those symptoms. Scientists working at the molecular level, meanwhile, are exploring the genetic basis for abnormalities in brain development and in the neurotransmitter systems regulating brain function.

Schizophrenia is a devastating brain disorder—the most chronic and disabling of the severe mental illnesses. The first signs of schizophrenia, which typically emerge in young people in their teens or twenties, are confusing and often shocking to families and friends. Hallucinations, delusions, disordered thinking, unusual speech or behavior, and social withdrawal impair the ability to interact with others.

Most people with schizophrenia suffer chronically or episodically throughout their lives, losing opportunities for careers and relationships. They often are stigmatized by lack of public understanding about the disease. However, several new antipsychotic medications developed within the last decade, which have fewer side effects than the older medications, in combination with psychosocial interventions have improved the outlook for many people with schizophrenia.

Some Facts about Schizophrenia

In the U.S., approximately 2.2 million adults, or about 1.1 percent of the population age 18 and older in a given year, have schizophrenia.

Rates of schizophrenia are very similar from country to country—about 1 percent of the population.

Schizophrenia ranks among the top 10 causes of disability in developed countries worldwide.

The risk of suicide is serious in people with schizophrenia.

News and entertainment media tend to link mental illnesses including schizophrenia to criminal violence.

Most people with schizophrenia, however, are not violent toward others but are withdrawn and prefer to be left alone.

Drug or alcohol abuse raises the risk of violence in people with schizophrenia, particularly if the illness is untreated, but also in people who have no mental illness.

Research Findings

Family studies indicate that genetic vulnerability is a risk factor for schizophrenia. A person with a parent or sibling with schizophrenia has approximately a 10 percent risk of developing the disorder compared to a 1 percent risk for a person with no family history of schizophrenia. At the same time, among individuals with schizophrenia who have an identical twin, and thus share the exact genetic makeup, there is only a 50 percent chance that both twins will be affected with the disease. Scientists conclude that no genetic factors, such as environmental stress perhaps occurring during fetal development or at birth, also may contribute to the risk of schizophrenia.

Research suggests that schizophrenia may be a developmental disorder resulting from impaired migration of neurons in the brain during fetal development.

Advances in neuroimaging have shown that some people with schizophrenia have abnormalities in brain structure consisting of enlarged ventricles, the fluid-filled cavities deep within the brain.

Schizophrenia can appear in children, though it is very rare. Neuroimaging research of childhood-onset schizophrenia has shown evidence of progressive abnormal brain development.

While providing clues about the brain regions involved in schizophrenia, these findings are not yet sufficiently specific to schizophrenia to be useful as a diagnostic test.

Treatments for Schizophrenia

The newer medications for schizophrenia—the atypical antipsychotic—are very effective in the treatment of psychosis, including hallucinations and delusions, and may help treat the symptoms of reduced motivation or blunted emotional expression. Intensive case management, cognitive-behavioral approaches that teach coping and problem-solving skills, family educational interventions, and vocational rehabilitation can provide additional benefit.

Evidence suggests that early and sustained treatment involving antipsychotic medication improves the long-term course of schizophrenia. Over time, many people with schizophrenia learn successful ways of managing even severe symptoms.

Because schizophrenia sometimes impairs thinking and problem solving, some people may not recognize they are ill and may refuse treatment. Others may stop treatment because of medication side effects, because they feel their medication is no longer working, or because of forgetfulness or disorganized thinking. People with schizophrenia who stop taking prescribed medication are at high risk for a relapse of illness. a good doctor-patient relationship may help people with schizophrenia continue to take medications as prescribed.

Present and Future Research Directions

In addition to the development of new treatments, NIMH research is focusing on the relationships among genetic, behavioral, developmental, social and other factors to identify the cause or causes of schizophrenia. Utilizing increasingly precise imaging techniques, scientists are studying the structure and function of the living brain.

New molecular tools and modern statistical analyses are enabling researchers to close in on the particular genes that affect brain development or brain circuitry involved in schizophrenia. Scientists are continuing to investigate possible prenatal factors, including infections, which may affect brain development and contribute to the development of schizophrenia.

Catatonic type schizophrenia

Patients with this subtype of Schizophrenia may exhibit extremes of behavior including catatonia. Some may allow their posture to be rearranged, holding the new position (catalepsy or waxy flexibility). Others may imitate sounds (echolalia) or movements (echopraxia) of others. At times, some patients may explode into an excited, activated state marked by purposeless ad repetitive movements. The catatonic type is rare today, and probably reflected an advanced stage of schizophrenia before the advent of modern treatment methods.

Disorganized type schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia that is characterized by a disorganized behavior and disorganized speech. Their affect may be flat or inappropriate. This type involves a disturbance in behavior, communication, and thought. Usually these patients show a variety of eccentric characteristics such as unusual clothing or peculiar gestures.

Paranoid type schizophrenia

Delusions and auditory hallucinations predominate in patients with this subtype of schizophrenia while their affective and cognitive functioning remains relatively intact. This type of patient often has highly elaborate delusions of persecution or personal grandeur. However, the patient may appear rather normal until he or she becomes entangled in typical argumentativeness and suspiciousness.

Residual type schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia that is characterized by a previous diagnosis of schizophrenia, but no longer having any of the prominent psychotic symptoms. There are some remaining symptoms of the disorder however, such as eccentric behavior, emotional blunting, illogical thinking, or social withdrawal.

In the residual type of schizophrenia, the patient has had at least one episode of schizophrenia. If delusions or hallucinations are present, they are not prominent, and are not accompanied by strong affect.

Undifferentiated type schizophrenia

This subtype of schizophrenia applies to patients who fail to meet the criteria for the other subtypes but clearly suffer from this mental disorder. The patient suffers from pronounced psychotic symptoms, which may not fit in any other specific category or more than one.

What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is an incurable mental illness. It is taken to be a psychotic disorder that makes the person unable to link thought, emotion and behavior. This leads to a withdrawal from his personal relationships and reality. In schizophrenia people undergo psychotic episodes. A psychotic episode is the term coined for unnecessary and unusual mood swings, becoming restless and eager without any good reason and being withdrawn. Schizophrenia, thus deeply affects/hampers the functioning of one’s thinking, conduct, social and personal life.

When is it Schizophrenia?
The diverse symptoms are a clue to the different kinds of schizophrenia. The indicators that are broadly divided into three categories thus vary with the types of schizophrenia.

Positive symptoms- schizophrenic suffer from hallucinations and delusions. These are the positive symptoms. Hallucinations make a person see things that are not actually there. For instance he may perceive a rope lying nearby as a snake and get petrified of it. In case of delusions, the individual might think himself to be someone, which he is not. He becomes oblivious of the reality and enters his own imaginary world. This can be too fatal at times for the schizophrenic and even for those near him.

The positive symptoms most often indicate the most common type of schizophrenia known as ‘paranoid schizophrenia’. The hallucinations and delusions make the individual act like a paranoid who is constantly scared of someone or something.

Negative symptoms- are exhibited when the person behaves like a mannequin i.e. he does not act or show any emotion. He becomes dull, impassive, unaffected and still personality and thereby displays a reaction less or catatonic conduct.

‘Catatonic schizophrenia’ is deemed to be the reason behind these indicators. Disorganized indicators- show an individual’s distorted thoughts and memory; he is unable to connect various events, understand them and does or says a thing over and over again.

This uncommon and perplexed behavior is mostly the cause of ‘disorganized type’ of schizophrenia. However, if the symptoms are unlike any of these then the schizophrenia is believed to be of undifferentiated kind.

Who gets affected?
Unfortunately the accurate reasons behind schizophrenia are unknown till date. But experience has enabled doctors to posit some peculiar factors that invoke and provoke schizophrenia.

Genes- in many cases worldwide, schizophrenia is transferred genetically. Studies disclose that those individuals who have had a family history of this mental disorder are quite liable to be afflicted by it.

The imbalance of the brain chemical called ‘dopamine’ often disturbs the brain functioning and produces schizophrenia.

An unusual structure or working of brain is even a cause of schizophrenia.

Change in hormones at the onset of puberty, during pregnancy, excess of stress hormone in the body and any other viral infection can very well develop schizophrenia.

Addiction to narcotics may at times lead to schizophrenia.

Prevention and Medication

In order to prevent the frequent occurrence of psychotic episodes, doctors prescribe medicines after few tests. Once the tests confirm the mental disorder as none other than schizophrenia, treatment commences. The medicines so prescribed are quite efficient to a large extent however, if a schizophrenic becomes irregular in dosage, schizophrenia relapses without delay.

Nowadays some other treatments such as the electro conclusive therapy (ECT), personal therapy, animal assisted and stem cell therapy have turned out to be too beneficial in curing schizophrenia to a considerable extent. Apart from these, doctors emphasize a balanced diet that provides all essential nutrients to the body and is particularly rich in vitamin E.

What do mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. and legendary rock star Syd Barrett of the band Pink Floyd have in common?

Both suffered from schizophrenia, a mental disorder that begins between the ages of 15 and 25 and affects about one percent of the population or 51 million people worldwide. Schizophrenia is found in 12 million people in China, 8 million people in India, and over 2 million people in the United States.

Schizophrenia, which is a form of psychosis, is characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality. It leads to hallucinations, delusions or disorganization in speech and thinking process. It usually occurs in young adulthood with approximately 1 percent of the population. Schizophrenia occurs equally in males and females although it typically appears earlier in men with the peak ages of onset being 15–25 years for males and 25–35 years for females.

“People with the condition have a 50 times higher risk of attempting suicide than the general population; the risk of suicide is very serious in people with schizophrenia. Suicide is the No. 1 cause of premature death among people with schizophrenia, with an estimated 10 percent to 13 percent killing themselves and approximately 40 percent attempting suicide at least once (and as much as 60 percent of males attempting suicide),” according to Schizophrenia.Com, a non-profit web community that provides information, support, and education to people with schizophrenia.

The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into three categories: positive, negative or cognitive. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and disorders of movement. Patients may see, hear, smell or feel something that normal people don’t. They often hear voices that comment on their behavior, order them to do things, or warn them of impending danger. They see people or objects that aren’t there, and smell odors that no one else detects. Delusions take the form of false beliefs where patients think that they are famous or people are plotting against them or spying on them.

One famous victim of schizophrenia was the Nobel Laureate mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. who was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the critically-acclaimed film, “A Beautiful Mind.” The story tells of Nash’s early days at Princeton University where he meets his roommate Charles and his niece Marcee. Nash is later approached by Department of Defense agent William Parcher to help the Pentagon decipher secret messages to thwart a Soviet plot. At the end of the movie, we learn that all three people never existed and are products of Nash’s troubled mind.

Syd Barrett, a founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd was a brilliant musician whose musical career was cut short by schizophrenia. His first album influenced generations of musicians and made him a superstar. As the disease progressed, however, Barrett suffered from weird thoughts, odd behavior, bizarre actions, disorganized thinking, and catatonia. He withdrew from public view at the age of 28 and stayed home until his death at age 60.

Although there is no cure for schizophrenia, effective treatments have been developed to help patients live normal and productive lives. If you have any of the above symptoms, seek medical help. To enhance your memory and support healthy brain function, take Neurovar.

A person experiencing untreated schizophrenia is typically characterized as demonstrating disorganized thinking, and as experiencing delusions or auditory hallucinations. Although the disorder is primarily thought to affect cognition, it can also contribute to chronic problems with behavior and emotion. Due to the many possible combinations of symptoms, there is ongoing and heated debate about whether the diagnosis necessarily or adequately describes a disorder, or alternatively whether it might represent a number of disorders. For this reason, Eugen Bleuler deliberately called the disease "the schizophrenias", plural, when he coined the present name.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality and by significant social or occupational dysfunction.

Diagnosis is based on the self-reported experiences of the patient, in combination with secondary signs observed by a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist or other competent clinician. There is no objective biological test for schizophrenia, though studies suggest that genetics, neurobiology and social environment are important contributing factors.

Current research into the development of the disorder often focuses on the role of neurobiology, although a reliable and identifiable organic cause has not been found. In the absence of objective laboratory tests to confirm the diagnosis, some question the legitimacy of schizophrenia's status as a disease.

The term "schizophrenia" translates roughly as "shattered mind," and comes from the Greek σχίζω (schizo, "to split" or "to divide") and φρήν (phrēn, "mind"). Despite its etymology, schizophrenia is not synonymous with dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder or "split personality"; in popular culture the two are often confused. Although schizophrenia often leads to social or occupational dysfunction, there is little association of the illness with a predisposition toward aggressive behavior.

Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are highly likely to be diagnosed with other disorders. The lifetime prevalence of substance abuse disorders is typically around 40%. Co-morbidity is also high with clinical depression, anxiety disorders, social problems, and a generally decreased life expectancy is also present. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia typically live 10-12 years less than their healthy counter-parts, owing to increased physical health problems and a large suicide rate.

Recent research has evidence that reveals that a newer class of anti-psychotic drugs may not be as effective in treating patients suffering from the mental condition called Schizophrenia, as older class drugs in treating the illness.

It was hoped that the newer class of drug would result in the patient experiencing less side-effects than those experienced using the older class of drugs. However, with research in this area being scarce, a recent trial has discovered quite the opposite. Claims that the newer class of drug would be more effective than the older class has never been backed up by evidence.

A recent trial involving 227 patients over a 52 week period did not find the newer class of drug to be more effective in reducing the side-effects and improving quality of life. The results showed that patients taking the different drugs showed similar results on a 52 week trial, measuring quality of life and side-effects at exactly the same points in time. It has been found that better quality of life and relief from symptoms from those who took the older class of drug was experienced than those who were taking the new class of drug. Another observation from the trial was that patients showed no preference for one class of drug over the other. There is also no meaningful difference in price between the older class of drug and the new ones.

With such clear evidence suggesting that the newer class of drugs are not as effective as the older class of drug, it would be difficult to see the benefit in prescribing the newer class of drug over the older class drugs. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., from Columbia University in New York's College of Physicians and Surgeons, states that newer anti-psychotic medications are "not the great breakthrough in therapeutics they were once thought to be."

Schizophrenia is one of the most complexes of all mental illness. It involves a severe, chronic, and disabling disturbance of the brain.

Basically schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and immobilizing brain disease that tends to develop between late adolescence and early adulthood. People with schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy, managing their emotions, or communicating with others.

Although schizophrenia affects men and women equally, symptoms in men generally begin earlier than in women. In most cases, schizophrenia first appears in men during their late teens or early 20s.

Misconceptions abound about schizophrenia, making it one of the most stigmatized of all mental illnesses. People suffering from this disease do not have split personalities and the majority are neither violent nor dangerous to other people, which is a common misconception portrayed by the media.

New imaging studies are revealing—for the first time—patterns of brain development that extend into the teenage years. The neurological development of children is considered sensitive to features of dysfunctional social settings, such as trauma, violence, lack of warmth in personal relationships and hostility. These have all been found to be risk factors for the later development of schizophrenia.

Recently news published that a youth who are missing part of a chromosome is further implicating a suspect gene in schizophrenia. Youth with this genetic chromosomal deletion syndrome already had a nearly 30-fold higher-than-normal risk of schizophrenia, but those who also had one of two common versions of the suspect gene had worse symptoms.

Symptoms of schizophrenia:

1. Disordered perceptions of reality

2. Disordered thinking and expression

3. Emotional flatness or withdrawal

Core Problems in Psychotic Phase

1. Social and/or Occupational Impairment

2. Delusions or Hallucinations

3. Disorganized or Bizarre Behavior

4. Apathy

5. Impaired Communication with Words

6. Impaired Communication with Emotions

Common Associated Problems in Prepsychotic or Post psychotic Phase

1. Lack of Physical Exercise

2. Poor Sexual Interest or Ability

3. Increased Smoking

4. Sad or Depressed Mood

5. Poor Concentration or Attention

6. Poor Memory

7. Lack of Insight

8. Lack of Self-Confidence

It is important that family and friends learn all they can about the disease. Support groups and family therapy can give loved ones a better understanding of the illness, including how to minimize chances for relapse, and when and how to get the patient the appropriate professional care.

While there is no cure for schizophrenia, antipsychotic medications have been proven to be crucial in relieving the psychotic symptoms of the disease (hallucinations, delusions, etc.). Once these symptoms are controlled, rehabilitative therapy can help people with schizophrenia learn to develop social skills, cope with stress, identify early warning signs of relapse, and prolong periods of remission. The good news is that many people with schizophrenia can work and live in the community or with their families if they receive continuous, appropriate treatment.

Schizophrenia, from the Greek roots schizein ("to split") and phren- ("mind"), is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality, most commonly manifesting as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized speech and thinking in the context of significant social or occupational dysfunction. Onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood.

Schizophrenia is a chronic, disabling mental illness that may be caused by abnormal amounts of certain chemicals in the brain. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters control our thought processes and emotions. Schizophrenia is a group of serious brain disorders in which reality is interpreted abnormally. Schizophrenia results in hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking and behavior. People with schizophrenia withdraw from the people and activities in the world around them, retreating into an inner world marked by psychosis.

Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed in people aged 17-35 years. The illness appears earlier in men (in the late teens or early twenties) than in women (who are affected in the twenties to early thirties). Many of them are disabled. They may not be able to hold down jobs or even perform tasks as simple as conversations. Some may be so incapacitated that they are unable to do activities most people take for granted, such as showering or preparing a meal. Many are homeless. Some recover enough to live a life relatively free from assistance.

Environmental factors are merely speculative and may include complications during pregnancy and birth. For instance, some studies have shown that offspring of women whose sixth or seventh month of pregnancy occurs during a flu epidemic are at increased risk for developing schizophrenia although other studies have refuted this. During the first trimester of pregnancy, maternal starvation or viral infection may lead to increased risk for schizophrenia development in the offspring. It has even been conjectured that babies born in the winter season are at higher risk for developing this mental illness in their early adulthood.

Genetic factors appear to play a role, as people who have family members with schizophrenia may be more likely to get the disease themselves. Some researchers believe that events in a person's environment may trigger schizophrenia. For example, problems during intrauterine development (infection) and birth may increase the risk for developing schizophrenia later in life.

People with schizophrenia describe strange or unrealistic thoughts. In many instances, their speech is hard to follow due to disordered thinking. Common forms of thought disorder include circumstantiality (talking in circles around the issue), looseness of associations (moving from one topic to the next without any logical connection between them), and tangentiality (moving from one topic to another where the logical connection is visible, but not relevant to the issue at hand).

Schizophrenia is a severe, lifelong brain disorder. People who have it may hear voices, see things that aren't there or believe that others are reading or controlling their minds. In men, symptoms usually start in the late teens and early 20s. They include hallucinations, or seeing things, and delusions such as hearing voices.

Schizophrenia can be treated with medication in the form of tablets or long-acting injections. Social support for the individual and support for carers is important. Counselling may be offered to the person with schizophrenia and their family. Brain scanning, especially MRI scanning, has provided a far greater understanding of the condition and led to the development of antipsychotic medication and therapies.

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Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis that shifts sufferers from reality to an often terrifying world of delusions, confusion, danger and hallucination. Often the symptoms of schizophrenia are described as "positive" or "negative." Positive symptoms, such as delusions, hallucinations, thought disorders and involuntary movements may come and go.

Negative symptoms refer to reductions in normal behavior, such as a monotonous voice, emotionless facial expression, a lack of pleasure, infrequent speech, poor hygiene and the inability to execute a plan. Sometimes, symptoms occur constantly, while at other times patients suffer from schizophreniform disorder.

There are five different types of schizophrenia, according to schizophrenia research, and the symptoms vary. The first type and the most common is paranoid schizophrenia. The paranoid schizophrenic suffers bizarre delusions and sometimes auditory hallucinations.

For instance, the patient may believe that the government is spying on them, that people on television or animals are talking to them, or that someone is trying to deliberately hurt them. Often, paranoid schizophrenics also suffer an accompanying anxiety disorder that causes heightened fear, nervous twitches and displeasure. Other patients have delusions of grandeur, and believe they are a great inventor or a celebrity.

Strange emotional responses characterize the second type, which is called disorganized schizophrenia. Symptoms of schizophrenia for this type may include emotionless facial display, a monotone voice, or the inability to laugh, cry and show any emotion. Sufferers may exhibit signs of "psychomotor poverty," disrupted speech patterns, a lack of spontaneous movement or motivation, derailment, thought disturbances and reality distortion.

The third type is called catatonic schizophrenia, which is the stereotypical view of a person rocking back and forth in a strait jacket, staring vapidly -- sometimes rambling incessantly, or at other times being completely mute. The symptoms of this type may include making jerky, bizarre movements, with arms and legs flailing about for no reason. The catatonic schizophrenic is incapable of caring for him or herself and is characterized as having a very severe mental illness.

The fourth type is referred to as undifferentiated schizophrenia, meaning that the symptoms cannot definitively classify the disorder as one type or another. Some patients show all the different symptoms or a few from each category. These patients sometimes lack catatonia, paranoia and disorganized speech, but may instead exhibit symptoms of a neurological disorder.

Lastly, the residual schizophrenic is someone who may have a past history, but currently exhibits no positive symptoms -- like delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or bizarre behavior. Sometimes residual schizophrenia occurs during a transition from diagnosed schizophrenia to remission, and other times no psychotic episodes occur for years.

Roughly, one out of every one thousand people develops a schizophreniform disorder - meaning that they exhibit a short term form of schizophrenia. Two thirds of the people with the disorder go on to develop a life-long mental illness.

These symptoms of schizophrenia can be caused by genetics, brain chemistry or environmental factors. Some people are literally pushed to the brink of insanity due to stress from social interactions. Others have an imbalance of neurotransmitters that may lead to disorganization in the brain.

To treat schizophrenia of any type, the good news is that taking an anti-psychotic schizophrenia drug is usually very effective in treating the symptoms, and allows most sufferers to live a relatively normal life.

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